Andrea Horwath MPP, Hamilton-Centre

Statement From Andrea Horwath on Nursing Week 2017

To mark the beginning of Nursing Week 2017, Andrea Horwath issued the following statement calling for a moratorium on nursing cuts and any further layoffs of health care workers:

“Ontario’s nurses are healthcare champions. New Democrats, and all Ontarians, owe a debt of gratitude to nurses for their concern and care, advocacy, and professionalism.

Liberal cuts have pushed health care in Ontario to the breaking point, but Premier Wynne still doesn’t get it. Everyone who has watched a loved one wait months for surgery, or suffer in a hallway without a proper hospital bed, has felt the impact of Premier Wynne’s cuts. More than 1,600 nurses have been laid-off in the past two years, along with hundreds of additional health care workers, hurting patient care and making wait times worse.

Enough is enough. Our hospitals are dangerously overcrowded but the Wynne Liberal budget does nothing to undo the damage. In fact, it will make the hospital crisis even worse. Funding for hospitals falls more than $300 million short of what’s needed just to stop the crisis, never mind fixing the damage.

The need for a moratorium on all nursing cuts and the layoffs of frontline health care workers is long overdue. Premier Wynne’s cuts to caring, dedicated health care workers must stop. Patient care cannot be allowed to deteriorate any further. Fewer nurses and health care workers mean less care for patients, and less care for patients is something that New Democrats will never accept.”